Thomas homers twice in Jays loss to A's

Frank Thomas homered twice off Dan Haren, including back-to-back with Vernon Wells, but it wasn't enough to power the Toronto Blue Jays past the Oakland Athletics on Tuesday night.

Dan Johnson had two hits and drove in two runs as the visiting Athletics outlasted the Blue Jays 6-4 before a crowd of 32,639 at the Rogers Centre.

Toronto rallied from a 4-1 deficit to tie it with three runs in the sixth inning, but the bullpen couldn't keep the Athletics at bay.

"Two tough losses in a row," Thomas said. "They have pitched so well for us, we have got to pick them up sometime."

Reliever Brian Tallet (2-3) yielded singles to the two batters he faced in the seventh inning and absorbed the loss when both runners came around to score.

Nick Swisher scored all the way from first base when Alex Rios overran Jack Cust's single to right-centre field for an error.

"I just missed it," Rios said. "I should have caught it and I missed it."

That brought Johnson to the plate and he squibbed a grounder beyond the reach of second baseman Aaron Hill for an RBI single.

Jeff DaVanon and rookie Kurt Suzuki had a run batted in apiece for the Athletics (63-64), winners of three games in a row and seven in nine.

"We had some big hits, some timely hits and it was just enough to win," Cust said.

Thomas cranked a pair of solo home runs, Nos. 20 and 21, for the Blue Jays (63-62), who dropped nine games behind the Seattle Mariners in the wild-card race.

Wells hit a two-run homer off Haren, his 16th of the season.

Haren (14-4) hurled seven innings for his first victory in four starts and 14th overall, matching his career high set in each of the past two seasons.

"I had really good stuff tonight, better than I have had most of the year," he said. "It was a nice win because I was really frustrated after that sixth inning."

Back-to-back homers

Through five innings, Haren showed Toronto why he is the stingiest starter in the American League, scattering just three hits and striking out nine batters.

But the Blue Jays tied it 4-4 with three runs in the sixth inning on the back-to-back homers by Wells and Thomas.

"It was a good lift for the team," Thomas said.

It marked the first time ever that Haren, who entered the contest with a league-best 2.54 earned-run average, had surrendered consecutive homers.

"This is not a fun place to pitch," he said. "The gaps are big and they've always got a good team."

"Maybe this'll get us going because there's no question Haren is one of the best in the game," Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said. "He was rolling, he was on, but we got a couple of big ones there."

Huston Street recorded the final three outs, two by strikeout, for his 12th save in 14 opportunities.

"I let them back into it and, luckily, the offence picked me up and the bullpen was outstanding," Haren said.

Toronto starter Dustin McGowan repeatedly worked his way out of trouble over five uneven innings, allowing three runs on five hits and three walks with seven strikeouts.

"The first three innings were kind of ugly," said McGowan, who retired the final nine batters he faced.

"It was embarrassing. It could have got a lot worse, but we kept them right there and we battled back."

Oakland took a 2-0 lead off McGowan as DaVanon scored in the first inning on a wild pitch and delivered Mark Ellis from third base with an RBI groundout in the second.

After Thomas homered to left off Haren in the bottom of the inning, Cust walked and scored on Johnson's RBI double to make it 3-1 in the third.

Rookie Jack Hannahan drew a leadoff walk off reliever Brian Wolfe in the sixth inning and scored on Suzuki's RBI double for a 4-1 lead.

With files from the Canadian Press

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Thomas homers twice in Jays loss to A's

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